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Aimée Bienfaisance
: Aimée Bienfaisance is a Muggle-Born French witch, now employed as a Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, following a brief period of retirement after seventy years of working at Beauxbatons Academie de Magie as a Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Transfiguration professor, Head of the Transfiguration Department, and later Deputy Headmistress. She retired to a quiet life in Cornwall, UK, but having missed teaching greatly, she has returned to teaching at the native school of the land she has retired in: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Before teaching at Beauxbatons Academie de Magie, she was a Transfiguration expert, often contracted by Ministries and companies to oversee large Transfiguration works or to correct complex accidents with Transfiguration. She also took part in a resistance against both Gellert Grindelwald and also the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II, however she was more active with the former, and with the latter mainly concentrated on relieving unknowing Muggles of the negative impacts of the coinciding magical and Muggle wars. ((OOC Note: Personal information, such as the characters early life, or other difficult to come by information, should not be mentioned carelessly in roleplay, unless your character was directly involved. For more information, or clarification, please send an in-world message to the Played By.)) Biography Early Life Aimée Bienfaisance was born Aimée Baudelaire to two Muggle parents in May of 1923. Not quite poor but not quite rich, Aimée's parents provided her with a good, balanced upbringing - she was fed and clothed, but not spoiled or indulged. Through her childhood, her parents were subjected to a relentless onslaught of unexplainable and sometimes embarrassing bouts of magic from their young daughter. At the age of three, the girl had Transfigured the parents' marital bed into a hippopotamus, almost causing her mother a mental crisis. By the age of seven, she had caused great nuisance by transporting herself magically to the summit of the Eiffel Tower, having to be rescued by the pompiers (french fire service) as she clung to the top (likely kept from falling by her latent magic ability) looking over her home city of Paris. At the age of nine in the year of 1932, the family went on a holiday in Devon, visiting the seaside town of Ilfracombe. For once, the magical intervention to their holiday was not caused by Aimée herself, as a Common Welsh Green dragon attacked the sunbathers upon the beach. Aimée watched on in awe as the Toke wizarding family thwarted the attack and proceeded to wipe the memories of the Muggles present. Not wanting to forget the wondrous sight she had seen, when a member of the Toke family advanced upon the Baudelaires to wipe their memories, she made a wall of sand rise between her and the Toke family member, leading them to summarise that this was a wizarding family, leaving them to continue their holiday in peace. Unfortunately this was not so peaceful for her parents. Following the incident, Aimée's mother Catherine had suffered a mental break and was commited to a mental institution, leaving Aimée's upbringing to her father Pierre. Believing herself solely responsible, this haunted Aimée for much of her life. Soon enough, all these strange magical instances were explained by a visiting professor from Beauxbatons Académie de Magie, who explained that Aimée was in fact a witch and that she would be attending Beauxbatons as a student. Once the explanation sunk in, Pierre sought to bring Catherine back home from the institution, but the institution had in fact made her mental state ever more fragile, leading her to be left in the institution for her remaining years. Years at Beauxbatons Aimée began her years at Beauxbatons in 1934, nearly immediately showing an aptitude for Transfiguration, Charms, and Defence Against the Dark Arts in equal measure. These skills took her in good stead throughout her years of education. When she finished her first set of exams in her sixth year at Beauxbatons, she was already submitted essays and articles to Métamorpho-Hebdo and Transfiguration Today, on a variety of topics including a celebrated article published at the start of the Muggle Second World War titled 'Morals in Transfiguration - Why Should We Not Transfigured Adolf Hitler Into A Gerbil' gaining her a great reputation as not only a skilled young Transfigurer, but also one very wise for her years. Inspired by her Muggle parents, many of her articles would concern wizard relations with Muggles, often directly countering arguments put forward by Gellert Grindelwald's more temperate sympathisers who actually managed to be published. By the time she took her baccalauréat de magie, she was receiving owls weekly from several publications asking her for her opinion on the latest Transfiguration question of the day. Before she left school, she took the baccalauréat de magie, for which she specialised in Métamorphose (Transfiguration), Sortilèges (Charms), DADA (Défence contres les forces du Mal), and Potions. Work Transfiguration expert (1942 to 1955) Known already as a prodigious Métamorphoseuse (Transfigurer) from her published essays within Métamorpho-Hebdo and Transfiguration Today, Aimée began working as a Transfiguration contractor, providing her expertise in Transfiguration to whomever could afford it. Le Ministère des Affaires Magiques were one particular customer, often contracting her to provide training on Untransfigurstion to their Bureau des Accidents et Catastrophes Magiques, or to handle particularly difficult cases involving Transfiguration. One of her first jobs was in 1942 when, despite her moral protestations, she had been offered a great sum of money from the French Ministry to reverse the mass Transfiguration caused by a plucky young group of witches and wizards who had transformed all the Nazi banners and propaganda posters across Paris to depict an animated caricature of Adolf Hitler sitting upon a toilet surrounded by excrement. She accepted the money and aided in reversing the Transfigurations, knowing it would not be good for too many Muggles to notice moving pictures upon banners, but secretly left a number of propaganda posters in their transfigured - but unanimated - states, to give the Muggles suffering under Nazi occupation something to laugh about, at least. In the course of this work, Aimée met this plucky group who aimed to help the Muggles suffering under the German occupation of France, but declined to join them at first, until a few months later, they informed her that they discovered that Aimée's mother had been one of many patients at her mental institution to die of starvation due to the Nazi administration neglect. For the rest of the war, Aimée would work with the group to provide aide and assistance to Muggles throughout France without their knowing, while also fighting against Gellert Grindelwald's forces on the wizarding side of things. Through this effort, Aimée would meet her husband, Georges Bienfaisance, and they would swiftly marry. There was a strong love between them, but it would be cut short in 1945 when Georges and Aimée were caught in a duel with a group of Gellert Grindelwald's sympathisers. The duel lasted hours, each side greatly injuring each other, until the two of them stood before a single opponent who struck Georges with the Killing Curse, prompting Aimée to finish the killer brutally in immediate revenge, Transfiguring his dead body into a wimple which she wears to this very day as a reminder not only of her late husband, but also of the dark forces she would soon encourage her students to fight and resist. Professeur de la Défense contre les forces du Mal (1955 to 1982) In 1955, having garnered a great reputation as fighter for the forces of good in the Global Wizarding War, and having published nearly two hundred articles in both Métamorpho-Hebdo of France and Transfiguration Today of the U.K., Aimée was offered a position as professeur de la Défense contres les forces du Mal, in lieu of a position teaching Transfiguration as none of the present professors were due to retire for a while. She taught DADA with a strong practical side, often being credited by her students and colleagues for creating a cohort of young witches and wizards who could take on any adult in a duel. Professeur de la Métamorphose (1964 to 1982) Following the retirement of one of Beauxbaton's Transfiguration professors, she was finally offered a role teaching her best subject. She would have a strict, but fair method of teaching, offering her students an equal balance of the theory and practical side, owing to the exact skill needed for Transfiguration. Responsable du département de la métamorphose (1982 to 2010) By 1982, Aimée would rise to became the head of the Transfiguration department, owing to her great experience in the field, many years of great examination results, her academic essays, and published works on Transfiguration, including the beloved practical guidebook to Transfigurations for the every day witch or wizard, 'le guide quotidien de la métamorphose'. Directrice adjointe de Beauxbatons Académie de Magie (2010 to c.2020s) In addition to her roles within the Transfiguration department, Aimée became the directrice adjointe (Deputy Headmistress) of Beauxbatons Académie de Magie. She served in this role for many, until the previous director/directrice retired and the Board of Governors elected someone else leading her to retire in protest of the slight. Professor of Transfiguration at Hogwarts With the quiet years of retired solitude proving too boring for Aimée, she has returned to teaching by taking up a post as Professor of Transfiguration at Hogwarts School. Publications Books Le guide quotidien de la métamorphose (The Daily Guide to Transfiguration) Published in 1972, The Daily Guide to Transfiguration ''by Aimée Bienfaisance provides a comprehensive overview of Transfiguration magic a witch, wizard, or wyxen may need to use in their daily life. Giving instructions on everything from household repairs to recycling old clothing, the book has been loved by many a French house-wife or house-husband and re-published in updated editions often. L'art martial de la métamorphose ''(The Martial Art of Transfiguration) Published in 1974, The Martial Art of Transfiguration ''by Aimée Bienfaisance details the requisite techniques for using Transfiguration within a combative setting. A niche tome, this book is considered a masterpiece by those within its field, but is often the least profitable book in the Bienfaisance back catalogue. The republished edition of 2026 features an excerpt of her later work ''France's Battles Against Gellert Grindelwald which details the 1945 duel which resulted in her late husband's death (a retelling which ends just short of revealing how the duel ended, with Aimée only admitting "by my writing this novel, it should be evident who survived that duel"). Un guide de la métamorphose (A Guide to Transfiguration) First published in 1982, A Guide to Transfiguration is a set of school textbooks detailing all the requisite spells and knowledge required for the study of Transfiguration in each year at Beauxbatons Académie de Magie. Les baitailles de France contre Gellert Grindelwald (France's Battles Against Gellert Grindelwald) Published in 2024, France's Battles Against Gellert Grindelwald ''by Aimée Bienfaisance tells her own true story of fighting against Grindelwald's acolytes in the Global Wizarding War, while also touching on the aide given by the wizarding resistance forces to Muggles suffering under the attacks of both Gellert Grindelwald and Adolf Hitler. The publication of this novel gained much media attention in France, particularly due to the shocking revelation that a woman known mostly for her academic publications and teaching of the country's young wizarding population had quietly concealed the fact she was one of France's war heroes, a fact which had long been forgotten by all but the sage old population that had lived through it too. : Essays Métamorpho-Hebdo (French weekly Transfiguration publication) * Sortilèges ou métamorphose: pourquoi pas les deux? (Charms or Transfiguration: why not both? * Many more publications. Category:Professors